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Don’t butcher Lost, please !!

By fred | November 9, 2007

I just don’t get it. I’ve already expressed my feelings towards this, but I feel the need to go at it again because I keep reading people watching Lost apparently being happy about the decision ABC took.  It seems they like that only half the season will air in the coming months. And I don’t get it.

I really don’t.

I am a huge fan of Lost, and I don’t want to have to wait one more year to see a new episode. But I’d much rather wait that long, and get a 32 episodes block of two seasons back to back that would rule my whole year of television then, than a mid season in a few month, and the rest of it thrown later.

It is all about the story, on Lost. We all know that, and I cannot believe than viewers and fans even of the show would be pleased by the idea of having their beloved series butchered, cut in half while it was not intended that way.

Producers have said a cliffhanger existed by the end of episode 8, yes, but not one to hold on as a season finale ! The story wasn’t meant that way, and to break it will only frustrate us after those 7 episodes, and will affect the next season as the story will then need tweaking.

Producers and ABC made a deal, to have a defined number of seasons, and episodes, left. And that’s great. We also had a deal, to get those seasons fully uninterrupted each year. Airing only the 8 episodes done in a few months would only be breaking those deals, and to me it is a disrespect to the show and its viewers. And I honestly cannot believe some would be happy by such a news.

I get it, you want Lost. So do I. Believe me I’m dying to find out what happens next. So go on strike, make the studios give the writers what they deserve, but don’t be happy when they throw at you pieces of the writers’ work they got butchered, please.

Executive producer Carlton Cuse already agreed : “It will feel like buying a Harry Potter book, reading half of it, and then having to put it down for many months.” And that’s not a good feeling, obviously. “It will only be frustrating for viewers to have to step away from the show and not see the second half of the season. The first half of the season, like a good novel, sets all the events of the show in motion and the second half deals with the consequences. We’re very proud of the first eight but it feels weird to have to stop literally mid-stream.”

And he’s not alone there, co-creator and executive producer Damon Lindelof also thinks that “that would not be ideal. It would be a lot like airing the six last year.” Is that really what you guys are happy about ?? Again, really, I don’t get it.

“Shows move at their own speed. You design the speed based on the length of the season, and if that season is cut short, you careen out of control.”

About airing the 8 episodes alone, here’s what Lindelof had to say : “I can’t look the fans in the eye and tell them we’re executing the original plan anymore.” That does not make me happy, in any way. I am willing to go one year and a half without Lost if I have too, so that they can do it good, do it the way they want to do it.

I never thought I’d say something like this, but I really pray for ABC to get inspired by what Fox is doing. Fox will not air 8 episodes of 24, and then nothing. They will wait until the whole season is ready to be aired, as planned and promised, uninterrupted.

It wouldn’t make sense to air only 8 episodes of 24, you say ? But it simply doesn’t make any more sense to do it with Lost !

Posted in News
Shows: Lost